Stuntman Autoworks
Instigator of things
- Joined
- May 6, 2010
- Location
- Sanford NC 27330
The "75% extra" theory is interesting. It doesn't really take into consideration how fast you'll be moving at that gear ratio at idle, only that there's enough oomph to keep you moving.
One long discussion I saw about this on pirate years ago had two main takeaways:
Tire size x pi = roughly what you want to shoot for for technical crawling... 60ft per min or 1ft per sec at idle-ish - so essentially ~100:1 or better with a manual, and half that with an auto because of the torque converter reduction.
Second thing was pretty obvious - engine power will determine how far off from that you can be and still be comfortable. Good torque off idle, you can be (numerically) lower, but if you are running a 1.3 in a sami, you need a bit more gear.
But a lot of those dudes in that discussion were out West and didn't deal with as much need for wheel speed. I think an auto is probably better out east because you can two foot it through the technical stuff and blast off when you need to, instead of having to shift your range box into high and grab 2nd.
I'm reminded of wheeling with a Marlin Crawler group out west. Duder would pull up on an obstacle, engine banging the rev limiter [baaaaa ba ba baaaaaa babada baaaaa ba ba baaaaa] tires baaaaarely fucking moving. "Hey Bill, are you in first, first low high low low?" "Nah, this is first second high low low low." "Oh, well you might want to kick it down a gear, this ledge is a little bigger than the last one" <ker chunk ker chunk> [baaaaa ba babadagagada ba baaaaaa babadagada baaaaa ba bababada ba baaaaa]
Fuuuuuuuuck.
I have a low crawl ratio but I rarely use it. I will use it in something real technical and I don't have to slip the clutch so it keeps it happy. But I have the option of the real low crawl and 2 other ranges for any type of terrain east or west coast. I like having the options sounds like the duders in shawns post didn't know how to use their options very well.